Buddhism in Lombok

TERAWAGA BUDDHIST TEMPLE

The temple consists of living quarters for orphans and the staff, the main building or Dama Sala, which is used for prayer, and a resting area, called Kuti. The leader, or ‘Biku’ is a Buddhist priest, and he is living and working here with two monks.

The main purpose of the temple is to serve the community. There is an orphanage here to take care of and educate orphans. It is also a centre for the reforestation activities performed by the villagers in the area. Thousands of different types of tree-seedlings are being looked after and nourished by the monks before they are ready to be planted.

The temple also serves as an educational institution for Buddhist monks. Through close cooperation between different Monasteries around the world, especially in South-East Asia, monks educated here can be awarded scholarships to go study more in other countries. Thailand and Burma are the two main exchange countries, but if a monk has sufficient knowledge of English or other languages, it’s possible to go to for instance Europe or the USA.

What we found so special about this area is the close cooperation between the people of the three different religions. There are 10 villages in here; two of them are 50% Hindu and 50% Muslim, while the rest are roughly 50/50 Buddhist/Muslim.

It used to be mostly Buddhists here, but many of the people converted to Islam when it arrived to Lombok. In the beginning, most of the converters were Wetu Telu, but as more educated Islamic preachers came and told them they had to change to the ‘real Islam’. Many wanted to convert to Buddhism, but the temple did not allowed them to do so if it was just a cover up to still be able to practice Wetu Telu. 45% of the area is now Muslim, 35% Buddhist, and 20% Hindu. But because of the temple, the Buddhist population is on the rise. Many people travel here to learn from the priest and monks, and some stay behind for good.

Conversions occur in the villages regularly, but only through marriage and then it is the woman who converts to the religion of her husband. There is no ‘stealing of wives’ here as is common other places on Lombok because local law forbids it, the man has to pay the parents of the woman he wants to marry. Both religion and traditions have a big place in people’s lives, all the three religious leaders teach the people to live in harmony with each other, so as to avoid conflicts.

Adat (traditional) law dominates the daily life, and is mostly put above the state law. The villages have their own Adat court, which takes care of mostly trivial things. In serious cases, the Adat law is mostly the same as state law, but in cases where it's different, they try to use the law that fits the individual case best.

Whenever special ceremonies are being held in the villages, everyone attends and the leader of the dominating religion in each village is responsible for conducting it. In August, they have a big ceremony where they pray for the forest before they all cooperate on the tree planting.

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